White, Just White
by RozErika
Summary: White roses symbolize sadness, and loneliness. Red roses symbolize love and care. How can we change our hearts, when they're all white? Request from Mineral-Tears; request completed. Erika x Dlanor oneshot, please R&R! Critiques again welcome.


**DISCLAIMER- CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME. THEY BELONG TO 07th EXPANSION**

**Sudden inspiration. A request. XD**

**For Mineral-Tears; a oneshot on Magical Girl Detective Erika x Death Sentence Dlanor.  
We all love you, Doranoru and Erika-tan :)**

**Symbolism:**

**Red - love  
White - loneliness/sadness**

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Minutes became hours. Hours became days. Days became weeks. The detective was all curious and keen to admire the lands Bernkastel had introduced her; out of Lambdadelta's pestering to 'shoo' Erika away. Erika didn't want to spend the time alone exploring, and since Bernkastel couldn't accompany her, she in the end chose her own servant. It was only a few minutes before she burst through the door, leading to Dlanor's room, without knocking.

The purple-haired girl was resting in an armchair, surrounded by a mountain of books. She was reading a red book, and it seemed that it was interesting. From her eyes, Erika could tell they were rapidly scanning through pages. She also thought that the girl was ignoring her.

"Dlanor! This is a time for you to enjoy the wonderful time in spring!" She exclaimed at the curly-haired girl, who was deeply engrossed in a novel when she heard her master's voice. "What are you doing?"

Dlanor said, "READING. Has the raining STOPPED?"

Erika cleared her throat and made her way to the window. It was difficult to go through the wall of books. She turned around and drew the curtains open.

"Well, it's still drizzling but look! Just look outside! The sun's up, the clouds are gone, and there's nothing better than a cotton candy field just waiting for us! We're going on an 'expedition!' " She bent to fingers in each hand to emphasize her words. Dlanor blinked, and her unimpressed look seemed to annoy Erika (as usual). "Hello? Dlanor A. Knox speaking? I said an expedition?"

It took a matter of minutes for Dlanor to digest Erika's words.

"OH. You mean NOW? Should I put away my-" But Erika had snatched the book away from Dlanor's hands, and flipped through the pages. She then laughed.

"What? A romance story? You read this garbage?" She threw the book aside with a swift move and brushed her hands together to wipe off the dust from them. Dlanor's eyes followed as the novel flew to a chair, and disappeared into the cushions in the chair. She could feel the frown forming on her face. Her glasses drooped from the ridge to the tip of her nose.

"..."

When Dlanor stared at the armchair where her book had landed, Erika folded her arms in expected excitement. At least she was successful enough to attract Dlanor's attention, but the girl was shooting a cold gaze at her. Erika didn't see much of it.

"Alright! Now that's over, you should grab whatever you can! An umbrella, your hat, your - what's that called? Glasses? Two pairs of them? No matter, you just take whatever you need! I should be downstairs at the- Ah crap-!"

As Erika was about to reach the door, her foot had tripped over a book. She fell to the carpet face-first;unable to protect her nose. She could feel a hard thud on her forehead, and hear a small rumble. There was a crashing sound, and the girl couldn't be seen. In no time, she was buried under a blanket of books. Dlanor rose from her seat to see if Erika was fine after a landslide of paper crushed her.

"Lady ERIKA. Um, are you ALRIGHT?"

Dlanor was only able to hear a small mumbling underneath the books. When she bent closer to hear it, there was a squeak, a grumble, and a growl.

"...Get this thing off me. NOW."

* * *

"Dlanoorrr!"

"Lady ERIKA?"

"Just how many flowers do we need to collect?"

Dlanor still wandered through the sugar-coated field alongside Erika, who was picking up roses of various colors - pink, red, and mostly, white. She had her arms filled with them, that they almost stacked up like a pile. Dlanor was carrying the roses in two large baskets, having no trouble gathering them as she stopped after a while to pluck for more.

When Dlanor suggested to switch the methods of gathering the flowers, Erika had just declined her offer; probably because Dlanor had underestimated her. As Dlanor knelt down to pick up more roses, Erika just dropped the pile onto the pale green grass and fell to her knees in exhaustion. She stretched out her arms and let out a contented sigh.

"I don't really KNOW. Lady Bernkastel said to bring back as many roses as POSSIBLE." Dlanor said, plucking four white roses beside her.

It was Erika's turn to speak, but now more yelling rather than talking politely. She almost shrieked, "As possible? Master's no being serious, is she?"

"I'm afraid she IS."

Erika looked at her in disbelief, her brows distorted into a shocked way, and she was twitching. She was indeed speechless. Could one possibly bring back thousands of flowers? Erika knew she should have brought Battler along. Dlanor gave her the calm expression.

"Let's just rest for a while, shall we? I'm done for!" Erika then dropped onto the parched grass, her aqua blue hair being spread like ribbons on the painted flowers. "What time is it, by the way?"

"Three in the AFTERNOON." Dlanor couldn't advert her gaze from Erika's position: arms bent in an unusual manner, legs tied together and head tilted to one side. It all seemed so awkward, pretty much what you see from Gaap's exercises in the morning.

Erika's eyes were closed, so she couldn't notice the long stare from Dlanor. Still, Erika felt comfortable in whatever position she chose, therefore Dlanor shouldn't mind about it. The problem was she couldn't stop looking at her. Dlanor adjusted her glasses before it dropped. "UH..."

"What is it?" This time Erika sat up, making Dlanor to motion away from her as she found out that she was leaning forward to her master. Erika didn't notice any of this, and, to show that, she aimed her attention at Dlanor's baskets. "Are all those white?"

The wooden carriers were decorated with white, pure white roses that stood out by their shiny color. The glitter on them shone brightly, and they looked like a sea of gleaming twinkles. It had caught Erika's eye, and she was seemingly interested in the arrangement of the roses. Dlanor just noticed that when she saw the collection.

"Um, YES. They're all white, I SUPPOSE." Dlanor said blankly, merely quiet but surprised that she didn't realize it before.

"Why do you choose white?"

"White is one of my favorite colors, I GUESS."

"Hmm." Erika took out a stick, and eyed the petals that illuminated its beauty. She could even see a faint reflection of herself in the petals, and the thorns were freshly sharp. "Now that you say it, it looks kinda lonely if you were to just leave it all alone with no one at all."

Dlanor nodded slowly, and Erika slowly grinned.

"Just like you, right?" She teased, poking Dlanor in the stomach using the end of the stalk. It didn't hurt, but judging by Erika's face, Dlanor's face was slightly pink (slightly). She just blinked at her. "You were so lonely back then, were you~?"

"Uh...Lady ERIKA?" Dlanor said, but Erika had ignored her. She resumed her poking and her teasing which made Dlanor feel uncomfortable. It wasn't because of the tease, but because she was sensing a tone of sarcasm in Erika's voice.

Erika just showed her fangs as she continued, "Because of that, you never did smile so often, right? Even tickling doesn't help, right? Right, Dlanor?"

"UM..." But more sooner would the happiness fade away, and Dlanor would hear the faint pity and sympathy in Erika's words.

"And you have Cornelia and Gertrude were by your side. You were lucky to have them."

Only now Erika's eyes had lost its feeling and tender, which now led to a dark shade of misery in them. At this moment Dlanor realized that Erika wasn't talking to her, but only herself. She was more like putting the blame on herself, rather than to put it on Dlanor. The reason was, because she was alone. Just like the flower.

"Lady ERIKA..."

"And there I was, trying to escape from the waves that tried to swallow me up. Yeah, nobody was there for me." Erika held the white rose in her hand, and her fingers closed around the stalk. The thorns made contact with her skin, and slowly dug its way into her palm. "I tried to swim, but my muscles ached. There was no solution that came to my mind. All there was was just, black water and black skies."

_Nobody tried to save me. Because, they didn't want to. And, the reason is, I'm a just a useless-_

"Lady ERIKA."

Stopping, Erika felt a hand that had touched hers: Dlanor's. She had her hand locked around the girl's, and it seemed to be holding the white rose with Erika's hand. Erika's palm grew a crimson color, and cool red liquid slowly dripped. Dlanor too, but she kept her eyes locked on Erika's.

The pain. It didn't quite hurt, but it did make tears to glisten in Erika's eyes. They trickled down her rosy cheeks, and to fall on the white soft petals of the flower. It turned damp, and it symbolized her loneliness.

"I know that you were an ORPHAN. But I strongly believe that what the past remains the PAST. So, you shouldn't be shedding tears over something that is already OVER. You have to look up to the FUTURE." Dlanor leaned closer under Erika's face, clutching the hand tightly, also painting the blood against her own hand. With another hand, she cupped Erika's cheek, allowing the tears to flow down the back of her hand.

Erika's tears had stopped flowing, and upon seeing Dlanor's golden eyes that were innocent, she gained back her consciousness.

"I'll be by your side, if you want me to, Lady ERIKA. I WILL," Dlanor promised, and the rose had turned red. The drips of crimson tea from the pair dropped onto the rose, adorning it with the simple red color, that too had a huge impact on Erika's heart. The hand then felt warm, surprisingly, as it wasn't Erika's heat at all. It was the only time she would feel the warmth that pressed against her cheek. She wouldn't want the hand to part away from her. She felt touched, but she knew, that one day they would be separated again.

She mumbled, "Forever?"

"FOREVER."

_I know we're going to be separated, but...I'll try to cherish the moments we will have, in the future. _

Erika smiled a little, and stood up, still holding the rose. Dlanor's hands had parted from it, and she looked up at the blue-haired girl who wiped off her tears. She returned to her usual mood, and went to pick up the roses that stacked up to her face. They were only white ones.

"Alright! Let's bring back white flowers for white day! Ugh, there's more white roses than pink!" Erika complained, deciding that they should return back to the mansion. "I mean like, I gotta bathe! I'm sweating here!"

"AH. Alright, THEN." Dlanor stood up, wiping off the wet grass from her coat. She carried the two baskets once again, and followed after the detective. "Are you sure that you can handle carrying all those ROSES? And your hand, is it ALRIGHT?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine! The hand's stopped bleeding! IT'S FINE!" Erika laughed, and quickened her pace back.

Dlanor tried to catch up. "Lady ERIKA. Apologies, but please slow DOWN."

"Oh, I will. If only you can go faster~"

Still, away from Dlanor's sight, Erika still had the red rose that was painted in her hand, thinking that it will make a great accessory to her hair. Because, even if Dlanor will abandon the rights to look after her, Erika would still have what was left of Dlanor in that flower, and, most importantly,

her heart.

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**OH MY GAWD I'M FINISHED. :D**

**Please review, if there's any mistakes or anything. Critiques are most certainly welcome. I'll have another two stories to do this weekend:**

**AngeMammon - Winter Lists (Saturday)  
RinniBeelzebub - Orange Nocturne (Sunday)**


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